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Sapling - Asana Integration Guide

Alice McAnaw
Updated

Introduction

The Kallidus Sapling platform helps HR and People Operations teams automate and streamline administrative tasks so they can focus on employee experience,  retention, and creating an amazing culture for the most successful teams.

Our Asana integration allows the provisioning of tasks in the Asana Project through the tasks API from the Personal Token authentication.

With the Asana integration, Sapling will:

  • Create Tasks: When tasks are assigned in Sapling, they will automatically be created as tasks in Asana

  • Complete Tasks: When tasks are completed in Asana/Sapling, the corresponding tasks will be completed in Sapling/Asana

This article covers the following topics:

How It Works

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Overview

Sapling will create tasks in Asana for all team members who have an active Asana profile. In order for a profile to be considered Active, the new hire must accept the invite to join your team in Asana.

Once the integration is enabled, you will see the following in Sapling:

  1. A new widget will be shown in the Assign Workflows section of the onboarding flow to allow you to create Asana tasks
  2. A new widget will be shown in the Assigns Workflows modal of the tasks page to allow you to create Asana tasks

During the onboarding flow, you’ll be able to toggle ‘Create in Asana’ on each workflow. Users who have Asana IDs in the workflow will receive their tasks in Asana.

Setting Up the Integration

In Asana:

  1. Retrieve your Organization ID by clicking this link - search for "workspaces":[{"gid"
  2. Create a personal token in My Profile Settings> Apps > Manage Developer Apps > Create New Token

In Sapling

  1. Under Administration Tools, navigate to Integrations and enable the Asana integration
  2. Paste your Organization ID and personal token, and specify your default team - your tasks will be created under that team
  3. Once complete, click "Next" and "Activate"

Integration Fields

Sapling creates a new Project in Asana with the name of the workflow including the:

  • Name of the task
  • Description
  • Who the task is for (the Assignee)
  • Due date

Keeping tasks synchronized between the platforms

Tasks completed in Sapling

For tasks completed in Sapling, the application will immediately complete the tasks in Asana.

If a task is deleted in Sapling, it will also be deleted in Asana.

Tasks completed in Asana

Every hour, Sapling will call the Asana API to check the task status of linked tasks.

If the status is complete, Sapling will update the task in Sapling and note in the task history that it was “Completed in Asana”.

If the status is incomplete, no change will be made.

Lastly, if a task is not found (i.e. it has been removed from Asana), Sapling will not update the task.

Frequently asked questions

Does the user has to exist on Asana for the tasks to be created/assigned there?

  • Yes, the tasks are created and assigned to the existing users in Asana. 

Can I use the Sapling<>Asana integration if we are on the free version of Asana?

  • Yes - the integration works with the free and paid versions of Asana.

Is the Asana ID absolutely required in Sapling first?

  • The Asana API only provides a display name on the user's endpoint, meaning Sapling would need to try and match the first name and last names to find the user ID
  • This would lead to match errors and is not an adequate solution to ensure onboarding consistency
  • Please refrain from deleting/re-creating active users as it disassociates their Sapling profile from their Asana ID - which in turns prevents their Sapling tasks from Sapling to Asana

Will change of start dates in Sapling update Asana?

  • Task due dates will be updated in Sapling, but not in Asana
  • To have due dates aligned, please delete the workflow and re-assign it

If I change the task name, description, or assignee in Sapling - will it update Asana?

  • Sapling does not two-way sync task names, descriptions, or assignees
  • To have these items aligned, please delete the workflow and re-assign it

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